Jerry Helisek and Brian Mahoney of the Percept Research team attended the Executive MBA Council 2016 annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana from October 22-25.
The conference theme of Redesign & Renewal, focused on innovative perspectives on the global shifts that are shaking the foundation of the graduate MBA education worldwide and explored the ways EMBA programs can maximize their efforts to meet the needs of business leaders in a swiftly changing environment.
Jerry Helisek (Percept Research) greeting attendees at our table
New Orleans is a colorful and vibrant city embodying the conference theme of redesign and renewal. The city has rebounded and recreated itself following the events of hurricane Katrina. Over 300 delegates attended the conference from 114 business schools representing 30 countries.
Time to Talk Research!
Executive MBA Toolkit Session
Brian Mahoney (Percept Research) co-presented a session called “Future of the EMBA: What the data say” with Tanya van Lill, (University of Pretoria) during the EMBA Toolkit, a one-day program held before conference sessions begin. Toolkit attendees learned the must-knows of the Executive MBA industry, tuition concerns, including admissions, marketing, program delivery, budgeting, student expectations, and more from industry veterans.
Plenary Session
During the first plenary session, data were presented from the council's annual Membership Program Survey. Percept Research collaborates with the council's Center for Research team to conduct the Membership Program Survey, which is a global benchmarking study of executive MBA programs. Approximately 92% of the programs in the council completed the 2016 Membership Program Survey.
The Center for Research directs the research initiatives of the council and is represented by Elmer Almachar (Northwestern University), George Bobinski (Binghamton University), Louise Kapustka (University of Washington), and Tanya van Lill (University of Pretoria).
Using Stakeholder Data to Make Decisions
The Center for Research hosted a concurrent session titled “Our World In Numbers: Using Data To Make Decisions“ presented by Elmer Almachar, Northwestern University; Tanya van Lill, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria; and Brian Mahoney, Percept Research.
Brian Mahoney (Percept Research) shares how to use data perspectives for impact
This session provided a structure for interpreting stakeholder data by briefly illustrating data analytics in action, in other words “how to interpret and tell a story from the information you have.” During this session, Mr. Mahoney illustrated how to focus on relevant data from different analytical perspectives provided to council members participating in Percept Research’s MBA Student Exit Survey.
About the Executive MBA Council and Percept Research
Percept Research serves as the research partner to the Executive MBA Council. Recently, the council reaffirmed the commitment to its mission to network, educate, and inform, and to make greater contributions to the industry. Council efforts include the launch of a website for prospective students that includes a blog on industry and school developments, new research on return on investment, and ongoing work to serve as a thought leader and to share knowledge and best practices.
Percept Research is a leading higher education consultancy serving over 240 business schools worldwide. Percept Research provides market research and consulting to higher education institutions and associations to assist with industry benchmarking, new program development, brand positioning, student lifecycle assessment, and messaging strategy.
Percept Research also offers custom higher education market research and consulting engagements to provide guidance to business school leaders in areas such as increasing operational efficiency and containing costs, improving recruiting and retention, and developing new degree programs.
Please check out more photos from the conference on the Percept Research Facebook page (and ‘like’ our page!). We would love to hear about your experience at the annual conference.
Looking to access the presentations provided at the conference?
This article on our social support platform provides information on how to access these presentations.